Aperture Birds
by Robin Bee
Summary: Robin has lived in the chambers her whole life. Cave Johnson and Portals are all she knows. But she finds the foundation of her life shaken when she is introduced to the Portal Gun Chambers. Now she has one question; Can she survive the sadistic GLaDOS?
1. Chapter 1

I don't know if I was born here. I probably don't remember because people constantly tell me I've been here for years. I've even heard I was the first one here, beside the techs. I could care less, honestly. I feel nothing. Except when I dream.

I dream of a time long forgotten, there was a bar full of mobsters. The bartender has a big black bird on his shoulder, and I feel a close connection with the bird. I know there must be symbolism behind my dreams, and when I wake up, I always feel like my mind is just on the verge of remembering a possible life from before this place. But when I look around my room, I realize it was just a silly dream, that I was always a test subject at Aperture. I look in the mirror and tie back my hair. Every time, I feel a strong hand gently petting me. Another memory, I assume, and leave it be. The name "Monster" is stuck in my head, and I don't know if it was the hand, or if it was me before I came here. Something in my heart tells me I am very fond of this name.

I head to the commons, it's a little after ten in the morning. I sit among other subjects who talk of silly things. They talk of things called a moon and a sun, which projects light onto you from miles and miles away. Impossible. There's no such thing as a moon, nor a sun. Aperture would have told us of them. I nibble quietly on the food provided. Another subject talking about 'grass'. What a strange name for a living floor. Other subjects speak of such silly things, it's no wonder so many go crazy and eventually never make it to the testing grounds.

My name is Robin. I've been at Aperture my whole life. Nothing before, and nothing after, this is what we are born for.

The only thing I believe in is Mr. Cave Johnson. There are pictures of a lady with long flowing black hair all over the place, but nobody knows her name. I think I once heard somebody whisper that she was Caroline, Mr. Johnson's lover. That's a silly concept, Mr. Johnson's only lover was science. Not to mention toward the end he went a little bonkers.

The black haired lady is very pretty, though, and her loving smile always makes me linger at her pictures. I've only been in training the past few days, I haven't been tested in a few days, which is peculiar for an advanced subject such as myself. Rumors have it that when this happens, you're going to the next level of testing, with a special gun that projects portals on to walls that is required to finish these tests.

It's also rumored that that's where you find GLaDOS, a sadistic machine who apparently tortures the subjects before killing them. I always put up a front when confronted with this rumor; There's no such thing as a sadistic robot, Aperture is smart, but they couldn't have created a machine with actual feelings.

Could they…?

When I think of it, my heart races a bit. I think I could make it through the portal testing. But then again, _nobody has ever made it through the portal sessions_. And that's when I doubt that I'm headed there. My training is over for today. All the stimulants, all of the endurance, all finished.

But when I'm in my room, a tech comes in and fits me for special shoes. He keeps saying that they are 'long fall boots'. I've never been in a testing chamber with long fall possibilities. I've been in chambers with portals that you select via button podiums, hell; I've even grown fond of many a companion cube. But a 'long fall boot'? Never. My heart races. Maybe I AM going to the portal gun chambers. I sleep lightly that night.

The next morning I wake to a female robotic voice. She alerts me of a new testing facility that I have been selected to visit. By my doorportal, which has yet to be opened, there is a strange set of boots. The voice alerts me that these are my long fall boots, and tells me how to put them on and how to program them.

My doorportal opens, but not to outside my room. It's to a new facility. I cautiously move forward, and the voice alerts me that I will not die. Yet. I swallow hard and look around the new facility. There's a long plunge in from of me, nothing to my sides but walls, and the door out of the facility is on the other side of the plunge.

"…This…" I pause.

"What is it, Robin? Fear?" The voice taunts me.

"It's an impossible test. I cannot jump the ravine, I won't make it." I step forward and look down. I can't see the bottom, I can only imagine how many bodies lie there, motionless, silenced.

"Nothing is impossible." The voice says calmly, and a panel to my right opens.

There it is. The gun I've only heard of in stories. The one that can defy physics. The portal gun. I step over as she lists off information for the gun.

"Very good. You are now in possession of the Aperture science handheld portal device. With it, you can create your own portals. These interdemensional gates have proven to be completely safe. The device, however, has not.

Do not look in to the operational end of the device.

Do not touch the operational end of the device.

Do not submerge the device in water, even partially.

But most importantly, under no circumstance should you—"The voice cuts off into a flurry of static white noise. This is the first time in a long time that I feel alone.

I swallow hard and prepare myself. Moving forward, I keep the portal gun pointed at attention. I shoot a blue portal by the doorway, and look down. The gunfire rings in my ears as I shoot orange under my feet and feel myself fall. I don't scream, but gasp and hold my breath until I feel my feet firmly hit the ground. I open my eyes and see the glowing orange pit in front of me, but on the other side of the ravine.

I look down at myself.

Nothing's changed; using the portals doesn't kill me.

Guess that's the test's job.

I felt brave and strong. _Bring it on._

I step in front of the doorway and it hisses as the hydraulics kick in and pushes the door open. It's been a long time since the last subject has made it to portal gun testing, I can tell that much. The door leads me to a room that contains only an elevator. The double doors slide open, and panels on the wall open just before the door, and I hear the cold robot again.

"This is the aperture science material emancipation grill. This grill will incinerate any unauthorized object to pass through it, for example; the aperture science weighted storage cube."

I take a step forward.

"Please be advised that a noticeable taste of blood is not part of any test protocol, but is in fact, an unanticipated side effect of the aperture science material emancipation grill; which may, in semi-rare cases emancipate dental fillings, crowns, tooth enamel, and teeth."

I take a step back.

"Please proceed to the chamber lock," I step right up to the emancipation grill and timidly press my hand through. My hand is fine. I step through the grill and the portal device shakes in my hand. I am frightened for a moment, thinking the gun might just explode, but the moment my entire body is through the grill, the gun stops shaking. I have no way to determine if it is permanently damaged, so I simply continue into the elevator, and close my eyes as the doors close behind me, the hum being the only thing I hear. It's comforting, in a sick way.

"You are doing—" Pause. "Very well." I look around for a speaker of some sort. GLaDOS is a ghost.

This would be how my portal gun testing would go on for what seemed like several hours. GLaDOS all the while encouraging me and telling me how great I'm doing. I wonder if it's a lie, I wonder how many other subjects got this far. And the ones that haven't.

I step out of the elevator and up the steps into the next chamber.

"As part of a required test protocol, we will not monitor the next test chamber." I feel my heart stop and start back up again. I don't know why I feel so intimidated. "You are entirely on your own." _Oh, that's why._ "Good luck." Suddenly I don't feel well. My stomach hurts and my eyelids feel like sandpaper. This is when I am reminded by my body that I have yet to eat, yet to sleep.

The test chamber label lights up like a marquee in front of me. It's blinding, and I move passed it and sit down up against a wall. Next thing I know, I've dozed off. The floor becomes amazingly comfortable when you're exhausted.


	2. Chapter 2

I wake up hours later. My stomach hurts so badly. The hunger pains are keeping me from moving forward. I look at the chamber number. 19. Glancing beside it, though, I see an odd gap in the panels. As though it's been forced open. I crawl over, and peer inside the space. There's a long staircase, a few weighted cubes… This space has been occupied before. And not by the techs. I struggle to my feet and wobble inside, ducking under a hydraulic pump that keeps the panel ajar. There's a weighted cube that has been converted in to a table. It's holding a turkey carcass and a loaf of untouched bread.

"Sweet Jesus," I mutter, and pounce at the cube. I take the bread up in my hands and rip it apart, shoveling bits of it greedily in to my mouth. An unopened bottle of water lays on the floor. I drop what's left of the loaf and damn near drown myself. After choking and sputtering a bit, I finally get my senses about me and look around.

The walls… They're covered in writing. Some in marker, some etched using chunks of concrete, others are in blood. But they all say the same things.

"Save me"

Hearts around a companion cube.

"The cake is a lie"

I pick up the bread, and, eating bits still, I move closer. Bloody handprints are all over the wall and I feel a chill. Following the inscriptions, I see a skeleton propped up in the corner, and I can't breathe. It's wearing a jumpsuit, much like mine, only the number is significantly smaller.

I can't move. I can't chew the bread in my mouth. I can't blink. The subject… It's me.

The height is the same, the size of the jumpsuit is mine. Normally you'd think it would be just another subject, but no. The trinket clutched tightly in its hands… I reach in to my pocket and pull out the little coin.

It was how I knew my name… It has a robin etched in to the metal. I break free of my paralysis and glance down at my coin, then to the one held tightly in the bones of the corpse rotting in the corner. It's the same damn coin. That explains how people say I've been here for hundreds of years… How I can't remember much of a past life.

I'm not Robin.

I'm a _clone._

I'm shaking so I sit down to think. I hear hydraulics moving and I peer outside of the gap I'm losing my mind within. I need to get out of here. I'll go absolutely insane if I stay. I take the water with me and finish the bread. Upon finishing chamber 19, GLaDOS' robotic voice coming on scares me so much I scream.

"As part of a required test protocol, our previous statement suggesting that we would not monitor this chamber was an outright fabrication." _She saw me enter the gap. _This makes me wonder just how much of a killer GLaDOS really is. Makes me wonder if this was really what Cave Johnson had in mind when he built this facility. "As part of a required test protocol, we will stop enhancing the truth in three… Two…" Her voice cuts off in to static again as I stand before the elevator.

She saw me. She knows I know how deadly she is, what kind of information I've collected. Would she kill me? Or does she think I'll enhance my performance somehow. They cloned me, and to be honest, I have no idea how far I've ever gotten. I step inside the elevator and take in a deep breath as the large doors quietly close before me.

I feel the g-forces are bringing me down. Into a lower chamber. I've only gone up since I've started. I start to shake at the thought of where I could be going.

But when the doors open, it leads me in to my sleeping pod. I look around. I jump when I hear that cold GLaDOS.

"You have finished testing for the allotted time frame. We will wake you when your testing will resume."

The portal to my bedroom opened and I slowly stepped inside. The pod for my bed slid open and I climbed inside. I screamed as the pod shot forward, propelling me through a series of portals. A gas filled the bed chamber and I held my breath for as long as I could. But the next thing I can remember was feeling more and more sleepy as the pod moved faster and faster… The last thing I see is the blur of portals moving by.

I wake up finally and I feel as though I've been asleep for an eternity. The pod slides open and I climb out, glancing at my calendar. It's been four days. My head hurts and despite having just woken up, I feel exhausted. I sit back down on my bed; I had stood up much too quickly.

I was much thinner, even after just four days. The door portal opens leading me to the commons to eat. I was ravenous after yesterday's testing. I had no indication of time anymore. I ate until I was about to get sick, and then I paused. The subjects I usually sat with couldn't eat. They were just watching me, in awe, or disgust. I couldn't tell. I didn't care. I was finally filled, after days of being so damn hungry.

Looking over, I see the line of new subjects stepping in, fearful and unsure. Usually the older subjects (like myself) helped them understand why they were here, that they were safe. I stood up to greet them, and as I was walking over, I saw a very pissed-off looking female subject that piqued my interest. For once I had a strange feeling, the back of my head was going crazy. She had something to do with my past.

I approached this subject first and she screamed at me. She seemed to be excited. It frightened me. She grabbed me with full arms and I had my face shoved in to her shoulder.

"Robin, Oh my God Robin." Was all she said for a little while. She wouldn't let me go, despite my efforts. I bashed my head in to hers and she finally let go, and started cursing at me. Next thing I knew, this crazy lady was taking swings at me!

"Who are you?" My voice scared me. It was broken and frail. After not using it for a few days, it had lost almost all of its strength. I grabbed my throat and looked at her, now she was crying.

God, this bitch was moody as hell.

"Raven," Was what she whispered. My vision blurred. I was looking at this girl, but all I saw was the black bird from my dreams. I had flashes of the bar I had forgotten. The life I had left behind.

"They took you…" _The life I was ripped from?_ "They took you away and I tried to find you and I had never knew where you went, Monster will be so happy—"Her voice turned fuzzy. Monster? That's something else I remember. The hand petting me… the name that kept me going, the name I never knew.

"Mons—"I coughed. "Monster?" Raven took a moment to respond. I didn't want to tell her that I wasn't Robin, but a clone of her, in almost every way. I wondered how many times I'd been cloned to forget so much.

"Monster. Your… boyfriend?" _I had a boyfriend?_ "He's been crazy without you, Robin. I need to get you home."

"Oh no, no." I said, shaking my head. "You're mistaken. There's no leaving this place." _Even if you die, you're brought back._ "_She_ won't let you."

"_She_! The fuck is '_she_'? I'll teach that bitch a lesson or two—" I stop her once again.

"Please watch your tongue," I start. "Your language is offensive. And She is not really a person. She is GLaDOS, the owner of us." Raven paused, then pointed at herself. "Yes," I confirmed. "She owns you, and me, and all of us." Raven was about to speak, but I stopped her before she got the chance.

"Nobody knows where GLaDOS is stationed, she cannot be stopped, she's been in control since the company was created. By Mr. Cave Johnson." I pointed to his painting proudly. He was a good man with good intentions, I just knew it. GLaDOS was the one who killed him and made it hell. I just know it.

"Robin, we have to get out of here. We have to get back to the tavern—" I blurted without meaning to.

"So it DOES exist!" She seemed flabbergasted. "What about the man in the trenchcoat?"

Raven nodded. "Yeah, that's _my_ boyfriend…-" She hesitated. "His name is…" She lost her breath and got a horrified look on her face. "Oh my God… I can't remember his name-!" I looked into both of her eyes, then looked around.

"It's not safe to talk here. Try to survive your first few days of testing. I don't know when I'll be back, I don't know if I'll live. But if I get back here, I'll find you Raven, you're the key. You have to live." I heard a buzz and looked to my homing bracelet to see I had a ping. GLaDOS was waiting for me.

"You have to live," I said sternly, and hugged her close. She held me tight. The moments didn't last long enough. It was when I was hurrying back to my port that I realized—Raven… That woman was my sister. If she helped me remember so much, I had to get as much information out of her as I could before she was cloned to the point of forgetting, like me. I couldn't let GLaDOS or my fear of her strike me down.

I was going to bring down GLaDOS. I would restore Aperture to the glory it was. I'll find out what horrors there are behind all of these closed doors. And I'll get back home.

Now I just have to figure out how.


End file.
